kingdom travelin'

They say in the USA that Memorial Day (yesterday) is the beginning of summer for cookouts, picnics, long weekends, and travelin. My summer begins when I fly to serve with my friends and colleagues in Central Europe and beyond.
As I write this post, Sweet Anna has dropped me off and I now sit at the gate for my flight to Budapest. I have a busy summer ahead.
Sometime in the next couple of days I will place a link to a more detailed schedule but for now here are the major plans for the trip:
– facilitate the Covenant Team heading to Hungary
– travel to visit friends and colleagues in the field in Croatia & Bosnia
– prep for and facilitate the orientation of three new teachers for Budapest schools
– there will be other smaller trips to places like Szeged and Krakow. The Covenant team will be the first since 07 to visit the concentration camp.
Your prayers would be appreciated for:
– safety
– good health
– personal spiritual growth
– my being used to facilitate spiritual development in others
– ease in logistics in getting our new Budapest folks organized and oriented to their new life in the Heartland
Here’s wishing you a good start to your summer!
I just hope I sleep in this plane. Next post from Budapest.

How does one capture the energy of a deadline for everyday activities? Or should one even try? If I worked daily the way I do before a trip, how long before I burned out?

From the backyard thots…

Congratulations Joanna and Will on your engagement.

We hope and pray that you will seek God together during your engagement and the rest of your lives. Get closer to God than one another and He will pull you together closer than you can yourselves.

We are pleased to be getting to know the man Will, is and look forward to this new relationship we have with him!

are your conversations mostly about entertainment or communication?

I’m working through a new discipleship material with some guys. In it recently there was a comparison of religious prayers and gospel filled prayers… it went something like:

A religious prayer life is one in which the concerns of this world are listed and the more concerns we grapple with the harder we pray… its about controlling our environment.

A Gospel filled prayer life is one which has generous times of connecting with God through exaltation and praise.

I sorta kinda liken it to the difference between a three year old crawling up into daddy’s lap just to be there and give and receive love and a teenager asking for the keys to the car… a very imperfect illustration, but you get my drift. Its okay to ask for stuff, we are given that right as adopted children, but its really, really important to dwell and abide with Him.